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Pigments + technique → style – how choice from available pigments, coupled with the way in which the pigment was applied to the ground, relates to painting styles

1 – introduction, a quick look at the colours found in paintings by van Eyck, Rembrandt and Poussin, against those of Monet, Pissarro and Signac
2 – up to 1700, tracing the history of pigments and technique from Classical times, through the Renaissance, up to 1700
3 – up to 1850, going through the period in which the first ‘modern’ pigments started to arrive, up to 1850
4 – after 1850, covering the Impressionists and post-Impressionists
5 – a better method, looking at a more objective and robust method of analysis
6 – results and conclusions, completing this series

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13Comments

This is an amazing resource for someone such as myself who has just recently taken an interest in painting. Thanks for putting this together, I suspect I will be here reading through it all quite frequently.

One note: I’ve only had time for a quick glance, but no mention of Edward Seago?

Thank you for your kind words.
I am afraid that for the moment, it is hard to cover Edward Seago. I love his paintings (so much so that I seem to have bought the book about them twice!), and they would be an appropriate continuation to coverage of Sargent and his contemporaries. However his work is still covered by copyright, so there do not appear to be any images of them in the public domain. This applies to many others artists too.
Sometimes I am able to obtain permission to use images which are still in copyright, and greatly enjoy doing so. Unfortunately those that are most difficult are usually where the artist is dead, but their heirs now own the rights (as they will, in the UK, for the 70 years after the death of the creator). Many of the copyright holders that I have tried to obtain releases from do not even reply, and some seem untraceable.
I am sure that Edward Seago would be only too happy to see his paintings here, of course.
Howard.

This is a marvellous resource. It’s so varied and wide-ranging. Something of a labour of love with posts every day. In case you run out of topics (!), perhaps you would you look sometime at the impact of Japanese painters (Foujita, Orguiss etc) working in Europe. Obviously much has been written about the Impressionists and other European artists ‘discovering’ Japanese prints, but little (so far as I can see) the other way round. What impact, if any, did Japanese painters working alongside their European counterparts have on their artistic tradition back home. Or, would this, like Seago, be ruled out by copyright law?

Thank you for your kind words.
I have been fascinated by the interactions between Western and Eastern art, particularly those in Japan. Unfortunately there isn’t a great deal of literature, and I don’t recall seeing anything which considers the ‘other way around’ in that sense.
Yes, there is always the problem of works which are still in copyright. I have in the past obtained approval to use some, but it’s a laborious process and many of those who own copyright don’t even bother to reply to requests.
But I will see what I can turn up, thank you.
Howard.

This might sound low-brow but I am interested in the works and evolution of comic artists.

I walked into a comic book shop and was stunned by a full-sized poster of a book they had in stock. I had never seen anything like it. It was astonishing in detail and shrouded in the magical mists of time.
I offered the store owner $50 for the poster, he wouldn’t sell. I offered $100. Nope. My last offer was $200 dollars as I couldn’t afford that, but I had to. The answer was, ‘No’.

I did purchase a hard-bound and a soft-bound copy of the book. I left empty-handed for the poster. I’ve always wanted a print of it.

The poster was the announcement of “The Mabinogion” by Alan Lee. This was many years before he became involved in the production of The Lord of the Rings movies.

To this day I still reverently and in awe page through it and drink in all the details.

Thank you for your kind words.
No, I don’t think that comic book or BD art is any less worthy for its popularity. Indeed, I love a lot of it, and have quite a collection. My preference is for artists, mainly French, who work in more continuous tone rather than for process colour.
The tragedy with almost all such works is that they are still covered by copyright, which is good for the artists but prevents me from including any of their work in articles here. Otherwise I’d love to be much more inclusive.
Howard.

I’ve reached your web page because of Jules Breton, and found your comparasion Jules Breton x Millet very appropiate to better understand both painters approach & styles. Till now I’ve payed much more attention to Millet (because of Van Gogh after’s and Musée d’ Orsay Angelus & Gleaners) , and I also have seen at MET a fantastic Breton (The weeders) that now with your comments, I put on the correct perspective. Your analysis over Millet and Breton individually also was very well developed and helped to complete my Millet references and expanded a lot my light over Breton. I also appreacite that you use very well defined cronological order to expose the evolution of life and style of each painter. In a simple comment – Thank you very much for such a valuable and well structured reference on Art – I’m going to come to your page very frequently – for sure.

This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company blog. Howard describes himself as a Former MacUser writer, RN doctor, survival medicine specialist; now blogger and painter.